Nintendo Download: 7th March 2013 (Europe)

Nintendo is on the ball this week Europe, sending sweet download news our way as we awake from our slumber. The list this week is a rather small one, but the mix of new, old and revamped old franchises arguably represents quality over quantity. The goodies for 3DS and Wii are below; sorry Wii U and DSi fans...

3DS eShop

Nano Assault EX (Shin'en Multimedia, €14.99 / £12.49) — Every week a number of the Nintendo Life community responds to the download update with "where's Nano Assault EX?", in increasingly anguished tones. Well it arrives this week (while still leaving North Americans to keep asking), and perhaps reflects its status as an expanded version of a retail title with one of the eShop's highest prices. We expect a lot of action packed virus blasting in pretty 3D, and while we get to grips with this new entry you can check out our strong recommendation of the retail original in our Nano Assault review.

3DS Virtual Console

Legend of the River King (Natsume, €4.99 / £4.49) — Long before Natsume gave us virtual fishing on the Wii with plenty of old-fashioned Wii Remote waggling, it was mastering the combination of fishing and RPG adventure on much more modest technology, such as the Game Boy Color. In the quest to catch a rare fish to save your sister's life, you'll take on tough fishing spots, trade your wares and raise some fish in quiet moments. It sounds as heavy as a full-grown bass to us, but we'll dig out our waders for a review soon.

3DS Retail Download

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (Konami, €44.99 / £39.99) — Available alongside the physical retail release on 8th March, the first portable Castlevania title of this generation finally lands on 3DS, bringing with it a stronger focus on combat and attractive 3D visuals, alongside the usual dose of exploration. We're working on a review right now, and until this one arrives you can try out the free demo on the eShop or check out our interview with the game's producer, Dave Cox. If you're in the UK, meanwhile, you're running out of time to win a copy of the game in our competition, so don't delay.

Wii Virtual Console

Metal Slug 4 (D4 Enterprise, 900 Nintendo Points) — The fifth in the iconic run and gun series — despite the title — this, like its predecessors, is unlikely to ever be described as the Citizen Kane of gaming. You run, you shoot stuff, and it explodes. That's not a bad thing, however, as this franchise is renowned for colourful graphics and excellent music; it may not innovate the series, but this entry earned a solid recommendation in our Metal Slug 4 review.

So there you have it, a varied mix of goodies on offer for both 3DS and Wii. Let us know which will deprive you of funds in the poll and comments below.

What will you be downloading first this week? (172 votes)

Nano Assault EX (3DS eShop)

27%

Legend of the River King (3DS Virtual Console)

12%

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS Retail Download)

11%

Metal Slug 4 (Wii Virtual Console)

4%

Nothing for me this week

Welsh ex-pat Tom is responsible for the day-to-day running of the site. He's the guy to thank for the generally brilliant nature of the content which massages your eyeballs on a daily basis. Also has an unhealthy obsession with all things Bowser.

User Comments (76)

Nothing for me this week. The only thing that interests me is Castlevania, after playing the demo. I'm going to see how I fare in the competition before using my gift code to buy it where it's £7 cheaper―on Amazon.

@Grubdog
Well last week I found Family Tennis 3D on the eShop, which was not mentioned in the official line up.
Plus, 15€ for NA EX without a demo?
No way.
No Runner 2 until april?
Where did you read that?

Looks like ill get Runner 2 on the 360 then, its a shame they really need to up the ANti on the Wii U and Soon, i mean the other formats got metal gear , crysis 3 and tomb raider, all those would have been great on the Wii u, but none are coming.

@ThomasBW84: I'm hoping for some surprises then, because for now, there's "nothing for me this week". As I did last week, I'm saying this without any malice. The kind of tempting downloads I'm talking about is stuff like "3D Classics: Super Mario World" or "3D Classics: Super Smash Bros.". Too bad it's "flying pigs" territory.

@Tsuchinoko: Why yes, Europe is getting something before another territory, apparently. I'm just as shocked as you are. (I'm not being sarcastic, and that's exactly the joke... get it?)

@ThomasBW84 What are they odds they included Nanostray in Nano Assault Ex? They only released one game on GBC so I doubt it's a VC release... Then again they never said it would be on a Nintendo platform, could be Android/iOS ports?

Will wait for the review of Legend of the River King.Already have the Wii U version of Nano Assault so will play some more of that before i think about picking up the 3DS version.Already have the Metal Slug Anthology on Wii.Yet to play the Castlevania demo (have d/l'd); would go for retail>digital whenever that is an option.

@Rizsparky Oh nun nun nun. I missed out on both Nano Assault and Neo due to a lack of funds, but now that my wallet has recovered, I'm going to buy EX because of the fact that it's the best version of the game... on a handheld.

@Geonjaha:... because Geonjaha did that before I could. And I have to say it's DEAD. ON.

@ThomasBW84: Thanks for answering, buuuuuuut... assuming you were actually talking about 3D Classics, aren't those developed by Arika? And I also heard there would be a "second wave" of 3D Classics coming, can you confirm that (I once read about it in an issue of the Italian Official Nintendo Magazine)?

I have the retail copy of Neo Assault, and... didn't love it. Too much ghosting, too slow movement around those globular surfaces. Best part for me were the behind-the-ship sections kind of like Star Fox. Really stunning in 3D. But overall, I didn't want to spend much time with it. Oh well.

Will be jumping on River King when it comes to the U.S.! Maybe I'm just an old guy who likes fishing more than spaceships nowadays...

We wanted to post about the European releases of Runner2. Here's what we know so far:

•Steam - The PC, Mac, and Linux versions of Runner2 are currently available worldwide•Wii U - Coming to all of Europe HOPEFULLY in mid-April, but we don't have anything 100% concrete yet•XBLA - Currently available in all of Europe, except Germany. Germany should be released in May or June•PSN - Should be available alongside the US release on 3/5, except for in Germany, which will follow in May or JuneWe understand that a lot of European gamers are looking forward to this game and are having a hard time waiting for it. Many of you are asking why the release is delayed.

The European release is delayed because to release in Europe, there are several rating agencies, like the ESRB here in the US that require that games be rated prior to release. The ratings process took quite a bit longer on Runner2 than we had previously experienced. Because of this, we are only now starting to submit our European versions to Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft.

Please be patient and know that the game is DEFINITELY coming. We will updte this forum post as we get more concrete dates.

So, was Nintendo change their mind about indie games?And why on earth it has to be so difficult to approve a game that is currently available on Xbox Live, and it will be in a couple of days on the PSN?Mid april is just CRAZY, I'm definitely gonna buy this for another platform, maybe Steam, sorry Wii U, sorry Nintendo.

@ThomasBW84Retail downloads are included in these articles, even if a game's release date is on a different day. Do these retail downloads become available on the game's release date, or are they rolled into the nearest weekly eShop update (Monday for Europe, Thursday for US, etc)?

I'm guessing it's the former, but I just wanted to get confirmation (I wanna know if I can get MoF tomorrow, or if I'll have to wait until Thursday, haha).

I still own the GB cart of Legend of the River King somewhere. The game is ok, and has an interesting idea behind it, but I don't remember playing it much as a younger child. The interesting thing about the game that intrigued me (at the time) was you had a virtual fish tank where you could raise fish and take care of them, all in black and white!

That had me LOLing!I just bought Fractured Soul on sale this week. I liked the demo but felt $11.99 was too expensive. I would've bought it earlier if it had been the sale price ($7.99), I'm glad I waited! Still no River King in NA sigh

Still don't understand why Nintendo doesn't release NA and EU information simultaneously. Nothing for you guys on the Wii U side, so I'm assuming it will be the same for us. Sorry to hear Runner 2 got pushed back. That really sucks but trust me it's worth the wait.